Cranston carries CSU volleyball team in sweep of Wyoming

Rams take out rival and stay in hunt for fourth straight conference championship.

Nov. 2, 2012

CSU's Dana Cranston fails to block a spike by Tianjin Bridgestone's Zhang Xiaoting on Tuesday, April 26, 2011, during the Rams' exhibition game against one of China's top professional volleyball teams at Moby Arena in Fort Collins.

CSU 3, Wyoming 0

CSU 3, Wyoming 0

LARAMIE, WYO. — Mountain West Conference titles and NCAA Tournament berths come with the territory for Dana Cranston and the other seniors on CSU’s volleyball team.

Those aren’t goals; they’re expectations.

Friday night, Cranston did her part to help the Rams win a fourth consecutive conference title by slamming down 17 kills on 36 swings and sharing in five blocks in a three-set sweep of Wyoming before a standing room-only crowd of 1,063 at the UniWyo Sports Complex. The 25-19, 25-21, 25-19 win moved the Rams (15-7, 8-3) into a tie for the conference lead with San Diego State (17-7, 8-3) with five conference matches remaining.

“It was very important to me,” Cranston said afterward. “This is my senior year, and … there’s four of us, and we all have a part in getting us where we need to be and this is a huge step in that journey. So, this one is really important.”

Cranston, a 6-foot-2 left-side hitter from Fort St. John, British Columbia, slammed down powerful kills for the Rams’ first two points of the first set and, fittingly, had two more kills and shared in a block with Brieon Paige, also a senior, for Colorado State University’s final three points of the match.

“Without a doubt, the person who carried us was Dana Cranston,” Tom Hilbert said after picking up his 397th win in his 500th match as CSU’s coach. “… She was a warrior from the beginning of the match and even through some rought patches, she still stayed in there and still continued to play smart and do the right things.”

Paige, a middle blocker, added eight kills and matched Cranston’s block total with five apiece. Redshirt freshman Kaila Thomas, also a left-side hitter, had three of her eight kills during a 4-2 run late in the third set that helped the Rams take a 23-17 lead.

Senior left-side hitter Jody Purdy had 12 kills for Wyoming (17-10, 4-7), but hit just .150 with six errors on 40 attacks. No other Wyoming player had more than five kills, thanks to one of CSU’s best defensive performances of the season.

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The Rams had 47 digs to Wyoming’s 31, and out-blocked the No. 2 blocking team in the country 8-7.

“I think Colorado State’s a great team all the way around, and they did a great job,” Wyoming coach Carrie Yerty said. “Izzy (Gaulia, CSU’s libero) is a great defender, and I think their whole team, they just were relentless and they played great defense.”

CSU used a four-point run with setter Deedra Foss at the service line to build a 13-9 cushion in the opening set and led by two points or more the rest of the way. The Rams closed out the set with a four-point run that included a kill by Paige, a kill by Cranston and a block they each shared in.

The Rams broke out of an 18-18 tie in the second set with a five-point run with Jaime Colaizzi, a freshman out of Windsor High School, at the service line and scored their final three points of the set on kills by Cranston.

After falling behind 15-14 in the third set, the Rams went on a 9-2 run to put the set, and match, out of reach.

“That’s a big win,” Hilbert said, “but it’s one that scared me. We don’t get that, and I think we struggle to win the conference.”